Living the dream in sunny Florida.

SHOWCASING Ben Groen *Class of 2008* After graduating from HIBS Ben took a gap year and decided to head to the U.S. and take part in the Camp America Program, where he travelled to Maryland and spent the summer teaching water skiing. After camp wrapped up, Ben headed down to Florida where he spent a few weeks barefooting, as well as training/learning from the World Barefoot Center, a Ski School geared towards barefoot waterskiing.

During that time Ben decided to spend some time interning with the Ski School the following year, leading into the 2010 World Championships. After a successful season Ben chose to extend the Internship for another year to continue pushing himself with his skiing and seeing where the opportunity could take him. Fast forward 10 years and Ben now runs the Ski School as part-owner, with his Fiance (Ashleigh Stebbeings, his partner in this video).

To date, Ben has won the Silver medal in the Men's division at the 2014, 2016, and 2018 World Champ's, and he's gunning to bring home a gold in the near future. We're gunning for ya too Ben!

Another talented HIBS Old Boy who's taken his passion, along with a ton of hard work and self-belief, and turned it into a magnificent career.